The deep, dark horror of 40k

Month: January 2017

As well as Ghosts, dysfunctional servitors and the seething mass of humanity that inhabit the depths of The Chapel, you can find the little things that crawl, fly and creep around. They are many, and come in all sorts of appearances but the three main ones to be found are as follows.

From left to right

The Skull Crab, The Wraith Bat and The Rat Devil.

All three can be found lurking in the shadows or running freely around and getting under foot or flying in your face and getting the crap scared out of you ( the Wraith Bats like doing this a lot ). A hindrance they can be but they can also be used to great effect.

Skull Crabs.

The Skull Crab can be found scuttling around fixing things, undoing things, replacing things and stealing things. No one know’s who builds them and there has been some speculation that one skull crab may make another and so on. This is of course an unnerving thought, because what happens when they get too many. Well that has already happened a few times in the history of The Chapel, one time in particular being the east side power plant that got over run with the tiny bastards. They systematicly went about dismantling the whole place and would have succeeded to if it wasn’t for the combined efforts of the worker gangs, which eventually stemmed the tide. A hunt was made soon after for any likely candidate you would have set such a thing in motion but none were found and so it remains a mystery as to why it happened even though it is still believed it was some plot to disrupt.

Another annoying thing about them is that they like to steal doors.

Wraith Bats.

Think homing pigeon but with the face of death. Yes that’s right these little flying monsters can be very useful for messaging. All they need is a message and a scent and off they go. It’s a talent they are very good at and it has been said that they can even fly through walls, which has never been witnessed so can’t be proven. One thing is certain though and that is they are filthy buggers and crap everywhere, they also have a tendency to fly in your face and scaring the crap out of you and then dropping something on your head, which may be a message or something else entirely.

They make good sport as well and many folk like shooting them.

Rat Devils.

The Rat Devils, or Rat Watchers as they can be known, are pretty inteligent and have been known to form gangs of their own, even aligning with a worker gang or other who they may benefit from. The reasons for this is usually territory as they don’t like it when the bigger folk start a fight that may result in their warrens being destroyed, if this happens they can get pretty frenzied and summon rather large rats to the cause, so it is not a bad thing to have a warren nearby but you do need to keep an eye on them. Some warrens may get too big and then the need for expansion starts and this often leads to contact with those around them. So homes can be over run, disease runs rampant and people die, which then leads to extermination or culling of their numbers until they retreat back.

You don’t want to feed them either as then they will never leave you alone.

Well that was a fun little part of The Chapel project and I hope the vision of what life is like in the depths is becoming clearer. I will be doing a post on the Albino Woods soon so the setting of the Ostium Guides and the Guild ( Thanks to Alex for that idea ) will take shape as it’s the first game to be played.

Æolus the Scarlet, or The Scarlet Guide as he is known, is a romantic soul who’s travels have brought it’s fair share of tragedy to his life. Once madly in love he and is dearly devoted traveled the roads of The Chapels surface, fending of attacks, guiding those who paid well and dispatching those who refused. A life of adventure they shared under the pale burn of The Chapels sun. This life of love and daring all came to an end at the hands of an off world traveler.

What happened is not known, for he does not speak of it, the pain is too great and it has consumed him whole so now he lives a life as a solo Ostium Guide. Æolus is a hard guide to find and those who do pay well for his services for it is said his knowledge of the roads that lead to entrances is second to none, that and his sword play is a thing of deadly beauty.

With him at all times is a mask and a lock of hair. He often speaks to these objects vowing a revenge and one can only assume they once belonged to his long lost love, if this behavior disturbs his clients they never say and he never cares to explain, until the end.

At the end of the travelers journey to an entrance of The Chapel, Æolus will ask a favour.

“Thank you for your payment and company kind sirs and may I say how nice it is to not part ways with a corpse.”

“I do, however, have a favour to ask.”

“If you find what you’re looking for and are able to leave the depths you are about to travel, then please seek me out and tell me all you have seen and heard.”

“I will pay you handsomely, especially if you have information about The Heptameron.”

I have been amazed by the work being created so far for this project and the bar has been set high so I thought I’d better pull my finger out and step up. The wealth of ideas being created has been truly inspirational and I hope all who are involved are enjoying themselves. You know who you are so thank you for being awesome. The Chapel awaits and The Ostium Guides will take us there.

The Lash Banshee is a ghost of wanton mayhem and destruction. A pure entity of chaos and she revels in it. Once a Tech Witch of The Excoriator Cult she was caught in one of the many witch hunts that occur on the surface of The Chapel, her long lash like limbs tied around her, she was hung until dead. Her still lifless body was brought down and dumped in a hole in the ground and burried. This, as it turns out, was a massive mistake.

A Tech Witch must always be burned and she made her tormenters pay dearly for there oversight. Rising out of the ground her new found fury and power knew no bounds and as she slew the towns folk she came to the conclusion that they had done her a massive favour. She rather enjoyed this new unlife and has been a scourge on the living ever since.

The Lash Banshee appears to those who she feels will benifit from her presence, because you see it’s all a game and a bit of fun to help the living kill the living and some times people in The Chapel want a lot of people killed. These are joyus occasions to The Lash Banshee and she celebrates with over the top blood shed and haunting laughter, but she can get quite carried away and even those she is suposedly helping end up mangled. This is not much concern for her as she just shrugs her ghostly shoulders and dissapears into the gloom to find the next murderous soul.

This is the third ghost I’ve created for The Chapel and she was the quickest to make and paint so far. I wanted to be quite loose with the paint job, kinda blurry, to give an impression of movement. The pose helped with this too and the bits just seemed to work really well together.

The Ostium Guides are capricious individuals who, for a fee, will guide a traveler to an entrance of The Chapel. They reside in the many villages and towns that can be found in and around the Albino Woods on the surface of The Chapel, boasting of their skills and claiming to know the safest ways in, which of course non of them are, and assuring their clients of their skill at arms if any unfortunate soul should cross him or her, which of course they are and this is meant as a threat as well as peace of mind.

As guides they are unmatched and take joy in pointing out locations and their tainted history and telling over imaginative tales of other travelers and the deeds they did in keeping them safe or relieving them of their heads when a double cross had occurred.

If a confrontation occurs on road then the Ostium Guide will fight with skills of a dancer and many a traveler has been impressed by such a display and has tried to recruit them but to no avail, as the Ostium Guides never enter the vast underground city of The Chapel. Why this is is unclear but not one of their calling has been known to do so. Some secrets are kept well.

Payment is always due at the end of the journey and it is always wise to pay in full for if you cross an Ostium Guide they would make you wish you hadn’t for even if you kill one they would have made you pay. This outcome is why there is so many bones surrounding an entrance to The Chapel.

So to those who have been called to The Chapel! I have a challenge for you. A little project if you will.

As you can see there are no images of The Ostium Guides and so I ask each of you to design and name one and then write a post about he/she and refer it to this one.

The Chapel is calling and it’s secrets and riches are yours if you dare penetrate it’s hallowed halls, crumbling library’s, oil slicked and rust cracked factories and death lingering catacombs.

To take on the many locations of The Chapel you will need a Warband of daring and zeal, fire power and strength of mind but most importantly a desire for secrets and knowledge. So a typical group will consist of the following:

1. Lord ( Psyker or not )

2. Acolyte ( Psyker or not )

3. Psyker ( Astropath, Navigator, etc )

4. A walker of some description

5. Henchmen. These can include Imperial Guard, Space Marines, specialists, assassins, mutants, Mechanicus, servitors and even Xenos. The only restriction is you can only have up to 6.

6. Servo Skulls and other little pests. No limit on these.

The idea is that the group can be split either by the player or because The Chapel feels like it, so you could find elements of your group separated and fighting to stay alive in some dark place of The Chapel or even on the harsh surface of the planet.

The Chapel has a role to play in each battle and this will work by having two decks of cards which one will be drawn by each player at the start of the turn. The cards taken will have an effect on the groups or individuals so keep in mind the potential randomness of the games as the terrain boards you fight on will have effects on the characters under your control. Sometimes being a Psyker isn’t a good thing 😉

Who are you fighting?

The inhabitants of The Chapel of course! They are varied and you should let your imagination go mental. Groups and gangs can be created to populate The Chapel and they must have descriptions and back ground so take your time. The aim for this project is to have it documented into a book and those who have taken part will get one. That brings me up to the next part. I will need stories, art work, maps, etc and I’ll be taking photo’s of all the models involved.

So get writing, get scribbling and get kitbashing! This can be a wonderful colaboration project and I hope to get a few more people involved but for now the people who are